A performative act refers to when someone's words or actions don't just describe or represent something, but actually create or change that thing in reality. It's like saying or doing something that makes it true or real. Full definition
Similar signs were used during the museum's 2006 «Into Me / Out of Me» exhibition, which focused on the «imagined, descriptive and performative act of passing into, through and out of the human body,» and featured the works of such artists as Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Hujar, Cindy Sherman, and Abramovic. (artnews.com)
The notion of painting as process and activity, or even as performative act, is explored in moving images. (camh.org)
The hosiery layers are artifacts of a private performative act in which the artist wraps herself in hosiery material to enact a series of precise body positions, recorded while sleeping, into pools of acrylic paint on a canvas. (emmagrayhq.com)